


Day of Honor

by genericfanatic



Series: Voltron Trek [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, M/M, Star Trek inspired, some 'we're gonna die moments'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 16:42:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9080908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genericfanatic/pseuds/genericfanatic
Summary: Keith has been having a terrible day, but Lance is by his side whether he likes it or not.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the Star Trek Voyager episode of the same name
> 
> This references some earlier stories in the series, if you havent read them i do have some short summaries in the story of the most recent episode 'Blood Fever.' 
> 
> Also as I'm planning stuff out this series may get more serialized than I originally intended, but I won't get as far as I'd like before season 2 starts, so we'll see what happens then.

“I’m telling you, man, he is the epitome of mixed signals.”

Hunk rolled his eyes, trying to focus on the adjustments to the ships engine and not get distracted by his best friend lounging on top of some equipment he was 80% sure was not meant to be used as furniture. “Oh?”

“Yeah!” Lance said, hand folded on his stomach like he was at therapy on a couch in a tv show. “I mean, I get that he doesn’t want to remember the day I…you know…confessed…but the point is I did. He KNOWS I like him. But he’s not giving me an answer one way or the other…”

“Maybe that’s your answer,” Hunk said. He wanted to care about Lance’s love life, he really did, but the dude didn’t shut up about it. It had only gotten worse since a weird alien ritual had sent Keith into a mating ceremony and he had been trapped for hours with Lance. At the time Lance had confessed his attraction to Keith, but Keith, embarrassed at his own behavior, insisted they pretend none of it happened.

“See, I thought that,” Lance said, “at first, but I threw out some one liners, some classic Lance flirtations…and…he acted weird.”

“Oh?” Hunk might have attempted deterring this conversation, but he knew that would just make Lance argue. Better to just get the pining out of his system. 

“Yeah. Like. Not like Allura, who’d shut me down, and not like Nyma, who’d, ya know, giggle and flirt back. He’s just...quiet. I’ve seen him smile a few times, so I THINK he likes it…or me…is there a difference between liking being flirted with and the person who’s flirting?”

“Yes,” Hunk said, screwing in a bolt, and pressing the button to run a quick diagnostic, “But I seriously doubt in this particular case that Keith would like your flirting and not you.” 

Lance looked up, excited, “So, you think it means he likes me?” 

Hunk sighed. “I honestly don’t know dude. He might have just been laughing at you.” Lance’s face fell so fast it might have been comical if it wasn’t so sad. “I mean…he probably wasn’t laughing at you.”

Lance leaned back and folded his hands again. “I’m telling you, man, its confusing.” 

“Here’s an idea:” Hunk said, “Have you tried ASKing him, how he felt?”

Lance glared at him, “I can hear your sarcasm. And surprisingly, YES I did try that. It was…more confusing.” Hunk raised an eyebrow. “Alright, so the transcript was basically this:   
Lance: Hey Keith, I have a few questions for you, because I’m mature and I try and talk about things rather than repressing myself just cause something that wasn’t my fault embarrasses me. 

Keith: Wow, Lance, that sure is the mature way of handling the situation. 

Lance: Right. So. What do you think about me?

Keith: Hmm, well, despite the obvious meaning behind your words and intentions, I’m going to interpret you literally just to annoy you. I think you’re a good paladin, a little too loud sometimes, but more serious than I originally thought. A great asset to the team. 

Lance: Right, but, what do you FEEL about me?

Keith: Isn’t that what I just said? What’s the difference?

Lance: No, like, do you...have any feelings for me? Besides friendship?

Keith: I’M GOING TO PRETEND I HEAR SHIRO CALLING ME AND AVOID THIS CONVERSATION.

Lance made frustrated hands in the air like he was choking someone. 

“Ah…huh.” Hunk said, “Lance, has it occurred to you he doesn’t want to hurt you by turning you down? I mean, he’s kinda a blunt guy usually. Maybe he’s doing that thing where he puts the needs of Voltron in front of other people’s needs.”

Lance sighed. “I thought that. And maybe it is. But, honestly I feel like getting turned down would be better than this. Like. I have no idea where we stand right now, and its frustrating.”

“So…” Hunk said, trying not to sound hopeful, “Are you going to stop flirting with him?”

“Oh hell no, Lance needs answers,” Lance said, speaking in the third person. 

Hunk sighed again. He hated when Lance spoke in third person. 

“Well, speak of the red devil.” Lance said, sitting up as Keith walked into the engineering room. “Hey, beautiful, if you were a laser gun, you’d be set to ‘stunning.’” 

“Fuck off, Lance,” Keith said, completely ignoring him and diving into the engineering toolbox. 

Lance all but slid off the equipment. Hunk had to keep himself from audibly chuckling. “Well,” he said, “at least that signal wasn’t mixed.”

Lance glared at him, getting up to go to Keith. “Hey, what’s wrong man?”

Keith didn’t bother looking up at him, just sorted through all the various tools. “Nothing. Everything’s just FINE. OW” He pulled back his thumb, sticking it in his mouth to counteract the pain from getting pinched. 

Lance felt like he was standing next to an angry lion. However, never one for basic survival skills, he poked the cat instead of backing away. “It sure doesn’t SOUND fine,” he said. 

Keith glared at him, thumb still in his mouth and detracting from his evil eye. “Alright fine, you wanna know what’s wrong?” He said, shaking his hand to get the pain out, “I accidentally shifted into my Galra form in my sleep and woke up because my FUR was itchy. When I couldn’t go back to sleep, I decided, to go get some food, only to find the goo machines to be temperamental again, and basically splurting all over me. Like, I’ve never been so drenched in slime, and I still hadn’t shifted back by the way, so its all matted in my fur. So, after I told Coran about the problem, I went to try and wash it off, the shower, to find Pidge had used up all the hot water. So, I then went to go blow off some steam, or lack thereof because as I said, cold shower, I went to the training deck to go a few rounds with the Gladiator. Of course, that only worked long enough for me to switch to human form before it glitched out. Now, Coran is working in the kitchen, Hunk’s in here, Pidge is hiding from me in the vents, I think, and so I’M going to fix the damn thing myself and then go back to bed.” Keith resumes searching for his tool.

“That, uh,” Lance says, overwhelmed with the rant that washed over him, “That sure is a some bad luck.” 

“Sure is.” Keith said, finding the alien tool, which didn’t look like any recognizable tool that Lance recognized, “I know I’m being ‘testy’ but at the moment I don’t particularly care.”

Lance put his hands up in surrender, “No, no, be as testy as you will. Just, um…” He swallows, nervous of how to broach the subject, “Well, and I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we have Allura and Coran’s thing today.” Keith raises an eyebrow in confusion. “The Day of Honor? Altean festival thingy? Any of this ringing a bell?”

“Oh,” Keith said, standing up, tool in hand, “I’m not going to that.”

“What?” Lance said, following him as he rushed out of the engineering room, “What do you mean? It’s a really important festival! So Coran says, anyway. Come on, it’ll be fun.” 

“Lance…” Keith sighed, “I think I’m good on alien ceremonies for a life time. I just want to rest.” He turns the corner into the training room, “after I beat that quiznaking Gladiator’s cybernetic brains out.”

 

“So, he’s not coming?” Allura said, evidently disappointed.

“He’s, uh, not feeling well.” Lance said. 

Coran’s mustache drooped. “Well, I’m sure we’ll have fun without him.”

They all nodded, looking around the holoroom that Coran had set up. There was no figure standing in the middle where the memories of Alfor once was, but around them was a cave. The paladins had been surprised to find themselves in a cave, as Coran and Allura usually described beautiful meadows when talking about earth, and this seemed like a strange setting for a party. 

But, hey, at least there was a table full of food. It even looked decent by Altean standards. Hunk quickly went over to it to test out a deliciously plump fruit sitting right at the top…

“What are you doing?” Allura demanded of him.

“Uh…” Hunk said, “Eating?”

Allura shook her head, “That food is set up to tempt us. Don’t worry, we’ll be eating Yelmier pies for one of the later trials. Well, not original yelmier pies…but they should do just as well.” 

Shiro raised an eyebrow at that, “Trials?”

Allura nodded, “Yes, the day of honor consists of several trials, to test our strength, endurance, and of course, honor.” 

The paladins nodded, not entirely understanding, “So, uh, what’s the first trial?” Pidge asked. 

Allura smirked, “Pain.”

 

2 trials later, the paladins were grateful that the alarm went off. Coran and Allura ran to the controls as they ran for their lions, shouting into communicators, “Galran ships are attacking a civilian freighter. The civilians don’t seem to be doing too well.”

Lance passed Keith as they ran. “Hey!” He said, “Sleep well?”

“No,” Keith mumbled, rushing past and over to his lion, bags under his eyes. Lance gave him a sympathetic look before rushing to his own. 

There were three Galran ships and one civilian freighter. It was frankly a miracle the freighter hadn’t blown up already, but it was hanging on for dear life, no weapons, just dodging attacks. However, a quick formation into Voltron was all they needed to destroy one ship and ward off the other two. 

Lance felt Keith’s exhaustion and frustration through the link. Voltron’s sword was slow and sloppy, but no one dared comment on it. As soon as the ship was safe, Voltron disbanded and returned to the ship. 

Lance wanted to go right to Keith to check on him, but by the time he got to the control room, Allura was talking on the monitor with the captain of the freighter, Keith by her side and protected from words of comfort. “We cannot thank you enough, Princess,” the captain with yellow-orange skin and a weird beak said, “Without you, all would have been lost.”

“Your most welcome, Captain,” Allura said, “Do you have any casualties, any injuries to report?”

“Several,” The captain said, “and our ship is running on minimal energy. We were returning to our home in the Vollhallond system, and we’ll never make it without repairs.”

“Vollhallond?” Coran said, “I was unaware there were any habitable planets or moons in that area.”

“There aren’t, which makes it a perfect home for us.” The Captain said, “Our planet was destroyed by the Galra several generations ago,”

Allura bowed her head. “My deepest sympathies. My home planet suffered the same result,”

“There are a few thousand of us left,” the captain continued, “We’ve created a conglomerate city-ship out of whatever resources we have. Now, we are scavengers and vagabonds, depending on scraps to keep what remains of our civilization alive.”

Lance could practically see the tug on Allura’s heart strings. “Why don’t you dock your ship in our cargo bay, Captain?” Allura said, “We have wonderful engineers who would be willing to look at your equipment and make all necessary repairs, and your injured can have full access to our healing pods.”

“You are most generous, Princess,” The Captain smiled, “On behalf of the Caalama, we thank you.”

The feed cut out and Allura turned to the crew, “Coran, Hunk, Pidge, get all your engineering tools ready and make your way down to the cargo bay, it looks like we can’t waste a second on their repairs. Shiro, Lance, go with them and help the injured to the healing pods.” She side-eyed Keith, clearly noticing his worn-out look, but debating on whether she should address it, “Send the Captain to me, I’ll speak with him about negotiations. 

They all nodded, and minus Lance, went to their appointed duties. Meanwhile, “Shiro,” Lance said, “Go on without me, I’ll be right down.”

Shiro sighed, clearly knowing what Lance was going to do, but not wanting to take the time to argue, “Make it fast.”

Lance nodded and ran after Keith, who was retreating towards the bedrooms, “Hey, Keith,” Lance said, reaching an arm out to him. Keith shrugged him off, “Hey, I know…I know you’ve had a crappy day, but…is there anything…I mean, is there anything really wrong?” Keith grumbled at him, “You can tell me, if you need.”

“Don’t you have other things to do?” Keith spat at him, not breaking his stride. 

“Yeah,” Lance said, “But I wanted to check on you first. You seem really out of it and…” he bit his lip, “I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be.” Keith said. It came off more like a command than reassurance. “Just leave me alone.”

“Dude!” Lance said, grabbing his shoulder again, “Something’s clearly bothering you, and its affecting the team. I’m just being a good friend here.”

“Oh, good friend, are you?” Keith spat at him, “Yeah, that’s what you’ve always been to me, your ‘rival.’” He used his fingers for the quotation marks. 

Lance blinked at him, taken aback, “I mean, look, I know we got off to a rough start, but…I thought we were over that.”

“Sure we were,” Keith said, rolling his eyes, “You just want to rub it in my face don’t you?”

“Wha--?”

“For once I was bringing the team down instead of you!”

Lance couldn’t have looked more shocked if Keith had stabbed him with his bayard. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out, and Keith unfortunately, kept going.

“Yeah, that’s it. Except I have to go days without sleep to even be on your level of shittiness. You know, I’d think you’d be mad, being terrible at everything is usually the one thing you’re better at than I am.”

Lance gaped. He tried to get noises out, but he couldn’t.

Keith wanted to stop talking, knowing he’d hurt Lance and already feeling terrible, but everything awful was just coming to his head at once. “Is that why you have that stupid crush on me?” Lance’s face went red, “Because you admire how much better—“

Keith was almost grateful Lance shut him up, even if it was with a punch to the jaw.

The punch, improperly done, did more to hurt Lance’s hand than Keith’s face, but on some level Keith knew Lance hadn’t really meant to hurt him. More than that, he knew he deserved it. 

Lance was shaking in anger, “Apparently there’s one more thing I’m better at than you are,” He said, “Being an actual decent person.” 

And with that, he stormed off, leaving Keith stunned in the hallway. 

 

Keith didn’t feel like going back to his room. He had tried to sleep three times, each time rudely awakened, and with the current guilt sitting heavily in his stomach, he would be lucky if he had more than a second. 

He remembered he didn’t eat more than the goop that had landed in his mouth this morning. Theoretically, the machine should be fixed by now. Maybe he’d feel better after eating. 

Except by the time he had made a plate for himself he realized he didn’t particularly want to eat. He poked at the goop with a spork and stirred it sullenly. 

He had managed to lick off the corner of a spoonful when Coran walked in. “Don’t mind me!” He said, “Just forgot some of my tools here this morning,” He said, heading to the machine.

Keith didn’t respond, going back to poking at his meal. He had thought Coran had left, when instead he sat opposite Keith. 

“It seems like my talents may be better used here,” Coran said.

Keith sighed, “Signing up for a big job here, Coran.”

“Well, I’m a hard worker.” Coran crossed his arms, “What’s got you down?”

Keith slid his spork across his plate. “Just…I…” where to begin? “Haven’t been able to sleep lately.”

Coran nodded, “Bad dreams?”

Keith’s dreams flashed through his mind. He blushed slightly, “No…not bad…” He sighed, “that’s the problem.” 

Coran raised an eyebrow confused. “Well, I’m not sure I understand.”

Keith swallowed, “I just…I…you were probably told I was kicked out of the Garrison on Earth, right?” Coran nodded, “That was kinda…a trend with me.” He swallowed, “’Discipline issues’ the child services person said. I’d get moved from one foster home to the next. After a while I just…I didn’t bother trying to connect with people. Why bother when I’d just move again? It was easier to just…just push people away.”

Coran nodded slowly, “Seems like a sure way not to be hurt.”

“I thought Voltron would be different,” Keith said. “I just…I had been pursuing the blue lion for a year, I have a mission here I believe in. I thought…I thought I belonged here.” He chewed on his lip, “I guess it was only a matter of time before I started pushing people here away too.” 

Coran watched him closely. Keith felt like he was being examined. “If I might ask, does this have something to do with why Lance was looking out of sorts earlier?”

Keith just managed to push his plate out of the way so he could rest his head on the table. 

Coran patted the top of his head. “It’s alright, lad. I highly doubt you’ve done anything that can’t be fixed with an apology. From what I understand, Lance has become rather fond of you.” 

“I know,” Keith muttered. That was part of the problem.

Coran sighed this time. “Well, I’m sure you just need to give him time. And, for the future, I have a proposition.” Keith raised his head just enough to look at him. “You have a tendency to bottle your emotions up, until you explode at someone.” 

Keith raised an eyebrow, wondering where he was going with this, “I suppose that’s accurate.” 

Coran smiled, “I’m offering to be what we call in mechanical terms a pressure valve.” Keith was so confused. “When you’re feeling upset, come find me and yell. Insult my cooking, say my mustache is strange. I’ve got a thick skin I can handle it, and you won’t have to hold it all in.”

Keith smirked, “That’s nice of you, Coran, but I couldn’t do that to you.”

“Oh don’t you worry about me,” Coran said, “Just join me for the rest of the Day of honor ceremony, and we’ll call it even.”

Keith snorted, “Alright, alright, you’ve pulled me in.”

Coran brightened, “Excellent! Well, you’re a few trials behind everyone else, but you can go catch up in the holoroom if you want, while we’re dealing with the Caalama.”

Keith nodded, “Alright Coran. I’ll go do that.” And afterwards, he’d find Lance and apologize.

The question was, how much would he apologize for. 

 

He walked into the holoroom to find an Altean man standing in the center of the room, blue and transparent. “Um…” He said, “Hi, I’m here for the…trial? Thing?” The holo Altean stared at him, “What, uh, what do I have to do?”

“The first trial,” the Altean said, “Is that of pain. To test your endurance and provide humility, you will be subjected to light levels of pain.” 

Keith’s eyes went wide, “Pain, huh?” He said, “And that’s just the first trial? What are the other trials?”

“Your strength will be tested,” The Altean said, “By having you move a boulder. Courage is tested by how long you can stand in a vat of Polotian Scorpions—“

“Oookay,” Keith said, “I was hesitant on this whole thing BEFORE you described it, and now,” He held up his hands, “There is absolutely No. Way. So, if you’ll excuse me—“

He backed up into something and turned to find a Gladiator bot at his back. “It is too late,” The Altean said, “The trial has begun.” 

The gladiator applied its electric staff to Keith’s back before Keith could react, and he felt electricity coursing through him. “LIGHT pain?” He said, feeling himself quickly shift to his Galra form. “What the hell are you—“ 

The gladiator applied the staff again, but this time Keith reached up and grabbed it in both claws and broke it in half, then reached up and tore the gladiators head off of its body. “This trial’s over,” He said, and stormed out of the holoroom.

He walked through the hallways, trying to calm himself down enough to shift back to human, but in his anger he had forgotten a very important fact: The ship had guests.

“GALRA!” A Caalama woman cried out as he turned the corner, facing a crowd of Caalama being ushered to the med pods by Shiro and a disgruntled Lance. 

A child screamed and several of the Caalama tried to scramble away, while several others, charged forward, as though to attack, or defend themselves. On instinct, Keith bristled, ears pinned back, but he stood frozen, not about to attack helpless civilians, but adrenaline running too high for him to switch back. 

Shiro rushed to stand between the Caalama and Keith, “Wait, WAIT!” he yelled, “He’s on our side!” 

One of the allies looked in parts fury and fear at Shiro, “You are allied with the Galra?”

“Keith’s half Galra,” Shiro said, “And he’s not associated with the empire. He’s one of our Paladins. He didn’t mean any harm.” The crowd murmured, clearly disapproving. “Lance, take this group down to the healing pods. They shouldn’t need more than an hour or two.” Lance nodded. He gave Keith a passing glance Keith couldn’t read, but it didn’t seem hateful.

Keith felt the collective eyes of the Caalama on him as they ran past, disapproving and angry. Shiro stayed behind, waiting until they were all gone before turning on Keith, “Keith…what’s going on with you?” His tone wasn’t accusatory, but with the promise it would become so if Keith’s answers weren’t satisfactory. 

“I…” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to smooth his ears back into his head by force, “I was just…at the celebration, I thought I could participate in the ceremony or whatever, but I…”

“I don’t mean with this,” Shiro gestured to Keith’s ears, “Though maybe it’s not the best time for your Galran form. But I was referring as to whatever’s going on with you that’s making you distracted and angry.”

Keith took a deep sigh. “I’m handling it,” He said.

“Are you sure?” He said, “Cause it doesn’t look like you are.”

“I said I’m handling it!” He snapped.

Shiro wasn’t afraid, but he hesitated. Keith took another deep breath, calming down as much as he could. Maybe he should take up Coran’s offer of being a pressure valve. “I’m…gonna go find Coran,” he said, taking another deep breath. At the very least his ears and purple skin were going down. 

“It’s not your fault, you know.” Shiro said, “You’re not the enemy.”

Keith paused for just a second, listening to his words, but only half-believing them. “I’m…gonna find Coran.” 

Coran wasn’t in the engine room, where Pidge and Hunk were desperately trying to figure out the Caalama’s strange hodge-podge of a system, built out of parts from across the galaxy. He went to the engineering room instead, where he found not only Coran, but Allura and the captain of the Caalama. 

“Remarkable,” the Captain said looking up at the Balmera crystal, “I’ve never seen an active Balmera crystal of this size.”

“It takes significant time and energy to grow,” Allura said, “It was the last from one of our allied Balmera. There are two we have currently allied with us, farming the crystals with kindness and respect rather than force like the Galra. It takes more time, but it helps in the long run,” She smiled, proud of the legacy she had started.

“Remarkable,” The Captain repeated, “Why, a crystal that size could power even our conglomeration city.” 

Keith did not miss the concerned look that passed between Allura and Coran. “Yes, well, as I said, it takes time to grow crystals this size. It will take some time to grow crystals this large again, though they are working on it.”

The Captain turned to her, “If we join your Voltron alliance, would we be able to receive one of these crystals?”

Allura sighed, “I…I’m not in charge as to who gets the crystals, you would have to talk to the Balmerans or the Betajoran colonizers. As long as the removal of the crystals is ethical, I don’t interfere.”

“I see,” The Captain said, not impressed, “I suppose, if that’s the best you can do…”

“It is.”

He nods. “We could use food and medical supplies as well. We were on a scavenger mission to get supplies for our city, but they were lost in the attack.”

Allura smiles, “Of course, we’ll give you all we can spare, but you must understand that our own supplies are limited.”

The Captain blinked, “Forgive me if that’s hard to believe from my end of things, when I see such a grand ship, with only 7 passengers.”

“That’s unfair,” Coran said, “Voltron is attempting to save a universe that has been controlled by the Galra for 10,000 years, we’re spread thin helping as it is.”

Allura held up her hand, “Coran, go gather all the medical supplies and food we can spare and have it brought aboard the Caalaman vessel.” 

Coran nodded and turned to the door, seeing Keith, and a Caalaman man running into the room towards his Captain. After a few whispered words, both the man and Captain turned suspiciously to Keith.

“Come on, Lad,” Coran said, eyeing the Caalamans strangely, “Come with me.”

Keith nodded, somewhat suspicious of them in turn.

 

The hours passed calmly with Coran. Or rather, it passed with a lot of yelling at Coran, to which Coran calmly listened, as he promised, and Keith then apologized and felt better. Still, the Caalamans…bothered him. It was more than their distrust of him. They felt like Rolo and Nyma. Just…something was slightly off.

But they were leaving soon. The injured were being escorted from the medical pods back to their ship. Pidge and Hunk had worked with the ship’s engineers to fix up the ship the best they could. Keith and Coran lugged crate after crate onto the ship. A few times, Keith passed by Lance, who was escorting some of the crew. He wanted to say something, but Lance always just left, barely looking at him. 

Keith could have caught him, shouted at him, begged him for forgiveness whether Lance was ready to forgive him or not, but each time he convinced himself that now wasn’t the time, and chickened out. Still, he did have a question, which only Lance could answer, “Hey Lance,” He said, running to keep up. Lance didn’t pause, but Keith needed to speak, “Lance, were all the Caalama with you the whole time?”

That made Lance stop, turning to Keith with a vacant expression. “Seriously?” Lance said, “That’s what you ask me?”

Keith had the decency to look ashamed, “Lance I—“

“No, Keith,” Lance said, “I was not the Caalama’s babysitter or prison guard, so no, they weren’t with me all the time, and I didn’t see the need to stop them going on their own.”

That made Keith’s stomach twist in suspicion, but that wasn’t his main concern now. “Lance…I just wanted to—“

“Not,” Lance raised his hand, shutting Keith up, “Not now, Keith. Soon. Just…not now.”

Keith sighed, and let Lance walk away from him, urging himself to yell an apology even now, but he didn’t. 

Instead he went to go investigate. 

“Keith,” Allura’s voice came over his comm, “Where are you?”

“I’m in the engine room,” he said, looking around. 

“The Caalama have just disembarked, we’re about to create a portal.” 

“Alright,” He said, “I’ll be up in the control room in just a tick.” There was a light up on the wires of the Balmera crystal he didn’t recognize as part of the system. He grabbed one of the weird Altean ladder things and climbed up to it. 

Someone had attached some kind of device onto the crystal’s wires. A device that was blinking. “Allura!” He called into the comms, “Allura don’t open a portal! Don’t open a—“ 

The blinking got faster and then exploded. Keith was pushed off the ladder, using the jetpack on his suit to avoid breaking his legs. He looked around. “Keith!” Allura called, “Keith, what’s happening?”

“I think the Caalama planted a bomb,” Keith said, “Scratch that, I know they did, because it just exploded in my face and the wires for the balmera crystal are all messed up,” Keith continued watching as the sparked and caught flame, “And now they’re on fire.”

There was screaming and panic over his comm unit. Pidge’s voice came through loudest, “If you work fast I can talk you through hacking into he systems and we can cut off some of the power, maybe save a few systems—“

“Yeah…” Keith said, looking at the room on fire, “I’m gonna eject it into space.” There was louder screaming, but Keith was in action, lowering his mask, opening the switch to the cargo bay doors, and slashing the sparking wires holding onto the Balmera crystal. The crystal flew off into space, and the castle went dark as Keith closed the cargo bay door. 

 

“So,” Pidge said, once they were all gathered in the dark control room. “The good news is after the LAST time we were without out Balmera crystal, I made some adjustments in case of just such an event. For instance, we have minimal life support, which means we should all stay to a few important areas unless we’re wearing our suits, like the control room and the engineering room.” She swallowed, “The bad news is our lions are locked down, oh, yeah, and we’re floating in space. Back to good news, I’ve made sure a speeder is always available for emergencies like this one. So, we’ll need someone to take it and go and fetch the crystal.” 

They all nodded. “I’ll get it,” Keith said, “I ejected it, I’ll get it back.”

“I’ll go with him,” Lance said, and Keith blinked in surprise, “I was supposed to be watching over the Caalama, I messed up.”

Allura nodded, “Alright then,” She said, “We have a plan of action. In the meantime, we’ll try to send messages to Shay and Prince Dorias. They may have a replacement if we can’t get the original back.”

They all nodded and Keith and Lance silently walked down to the speeder. After they took off, the silence was killing him. “Thank you,” Keith said. Lance looked up, and he blushed. “For—for coming with me. I mean.”

Lance smiled and nodded, “You’re welcome.”

The silence resumed. Lance was never silent for this long, it was off putting. Keith adjusted the scanners. “There’s something on sensors…It could be the Balmera Crystal,”

Lance nodded, “Adjusting course…It’ll take us longer to get there in this old thing.”

Keith shrugged, “That’s fine.” 

Once again, the silence resumed. 

Keith couldn’t take it any longer, “Lance…” He said, getting his attention, “I was wondering if you were ready…I mean, would now be a good time to apologi—“

“Dude, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Lance said, waving him off. “You were having a bad day, I know you were, and you didn’t mean it. I’m sorry for getting so mad.”

“No, no!” Keith said, “You had every right to be mad. What I said…what I said was awful, and 100% not true.”

“Still,” Lance said, “I…I should…I mean I don’t…” He sighed, “When the explosion happened, I thought you were…you know…” 

“Oh,” he said, “Oh! No, well…this explosion was a lot smaller than the one Sendak used. And I cushioned my fall with my rockets, so really I was more in danger from the fire than anything. But I wasn’t really in danger of that either! I—“ Oh quiznak, all the words were coming out so wrong.

Lance smiled, “It’s fine. I mean, not fine that you were in it, but…you came out fine.” He swallowed, “Its just…for a second…when I thought that…Well, I didn’t want you to die thinking I was mad at you.” He smiled at Keith, “To be honest, I wasn’t that mad at all, I just…I don’t know, I was being petty, I guess. Glad to have the moral highground for once.”

Keith swallowed, “So…we’re good?”

Lance nodded, “Yeah man, we’re good.”

Keith smiled, “Glad one good thing came out of this horrible day.”

Lance snorted, “Eh, look on the bright side. Getting exploded has to be the low point of any day, so it can’t get any worse.” Keith laughed, and the silence swept over them again, this one a lot more comfortable. Still, Lance seemed to need to fill it, “Keith, I…I actually wanted to talk to you…about something else.”

Keith stiffened, “What is it?” 

“It’s…well…you weren’t one HUNDRED percent wrong when you were yelling at me earlier.” He swallowed, not looking at Keith, “You see I…um…I do actually have…” His voice grew quieter with each passing word, “a crush on you.”

And there it was, all out in the open. It was nothing that Keith didn’t know, but it still sent a shock through him. Hesitantly, Lance looked up, gaging his reaction. 

Keith couldn’t answer, so Lance kept talking, “I’ve thought, I mean, sometimes it seems like you like me too. But, I’m not sure, and so, I guess I’m asking. Do you? Like…like me? I mean, LIKE like me?”

Keith was struck silent. He knew he had to say something. There was no beating around the bush anymore, he had to do what Lance had, lay his feelings all out there in the open. 

“Lance, I—“

He was cut off as an alarm blared in the speeder. Keith quickly turned to the scanners. “It’s the crystal,” He said, “And you’ll never guess who’s trying to put a tractor beam on it.”

The speeder pulled up next to the Caalama freighter and hailed, “Caalama vessel,” Keith said, “You are currently tractor beaming a crystal that belongs to—“

“Go away,” The Caalama captain said, “We are performing a salvage mission. This is ours now.”

“More like a mugging,” Keith said. “Captain, you know how powerful Voltron is, you KNOW we have allies who will help us. Give us the crystal now, and we may be able to salvage our alliance.”

The viewscreen came on and Keith faced the Captain. “It’s you,” The Captain said, “You’re the Galra.”

“Yeah, and he’s trying to end this peacefully,” Lance piped up, “So if you don’t MIND, shut down your—“

The image went out and the speeder shook from a blast sent by the Caalama. “Doesn’t this thing have shields?” Lance shouted, grabbing at the controls and trying to evade the shots.

“Not really,” Keith said, trying to search for any weapons. Of course, it was unarmed. Another shot rocked the vessel, “structural integrity falling fast!” 

“We have to get out of here!” Lance shouted.

“We can’t leave without the crystal!” 

A third shot rocked them, and they both watched in horror as a crack spread like lightening across the windshield, “Now we get neither,” Lance said, and he grabbed Keith’s hand, pulling them both out of their seats. Making sure both their masks were closed, he shot the door open, and the air from within the speeder pushed them far out into space. 

They both watched in horror as the speeder exploded, and the Caalama ship left with the crystal.

~~~

“Lance to Lion Castle,” Lance’s voice was going hoarse as he repeated his message over and over, “Lance to Lion Castle, do you read me?” 

“If they didn’t hear you the first 49 times…” Keith muttered, holding onto Lance’s hand so neither of them floated away in the vastness of space.

Lance huffed, “Well, I’m open to suggestions.”

Keith bit his lip, “We could try using our rockets,” He said, “Try and fly our way to Lion Castle with just our suits.” 

Lance nodded, “Okay,” He said, “Which way to the ship?”

They looked around the vast unremarkable space, containing only unfamiliar stars. “Um,” Keith said, “I don’t…I don’t know.” 

They held their hands tighter.

~~~

“Uggh,” Keith mumbled after they had been floating for what must have been an hour. It was impossible to tell, of course. “I feel like Hunk,”

“Eh, puke away,” Lance said, “You’ll only get it in your own mask, and I’m at no risk.”

Keith ignored him, “You know, I always thought this would be more like the simulations at the Garrison,” He said, “That always felt…like you were floating or something.”

Lance laughed, “You shoulda stayed longer. They had a test where they took us all into upper atmosphere, and hung us out like laundry to see how long we could hold out. Hunk was green for a full week.”

Lance chuckled at the memory and Keith couldn’t help but chuckle with him, “Nah, I couldn’t stay,” He said, “Garrison wasn’t my scene, if they hadn’t kicked me out, I probably would have left.”

Lance’s laughter died out. “Surely…there were SOME good things?” He said, clearly fishing for the compliment.

Keith smiled sweetly at him. “Well, there was this kid who kept getting up into my personal space.”

Lance barked a laugh, “I was trying to be FRIENDLY.” 

Keith giggled, “Well, I know that NOW,” He said, “But if you think I’m standoffish and weird now, you can only imagine what I was like at 14.”

Lance smiled at him, “I don’t think you’re standoffish.”

Keith smiled back, “And…weird?”

Lance shrugged, “That’s a good thing.”

This was it. A moment between the two. Keith was more conscious than ever that they were holding hands. He thought Lance was going to ask him again, ask for the answer Keith didn’t, hadn’t ever given him…but he didn’t.

Keith opened his mouth, when he felt himself being pushed and pulled in space. Lance’s hand was ripped away from him as waves of energy rushed over him. He instinctively turned his rockets on, stabilizing himself. He looked around and saw Lance hurtling away from him. “Lance!” Keith called out, and quickly activated his jetpack to chase after him. 

He hurtled into Lance, using his rockets to once again stabilize himself, clutching Lance around the middle. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you,” 

Lance was gasping for air. “T-“ Lance managed to say, “T-tank,” he rasped. 

Keith looked over Lance’s shoulder to see his oxygen tank cracked, and leaking fast. Thinking quickly he said, “Hold your breath!” and disconnected Lance’s tank. It flew off into the darkness. 

It was hard to maneuver in space gloves but he managed to hook Lance’s tank into his own. Finally, Lance took a deep breath, “Aaaah,” Lance said, “I knew you took my breath away, but who’da thunk you’d give me yours?”

Keith smirked, holding onto him. “Lance…” He muttered, “I…I have some bad news.”

Lance’s humor drained away. “I’m not sure if I wanna know.”

“My tank was affected by the energy wave too,” He said, “With it split between the two of us, it’ll last an hour, tops.”

Lance sighed, “I definitely didn’t want to know that.”

~~~

“Think the others will be okay?” Keith asked over the warning in his suit about their depleting air supply. 

“Oh yeah,” Lance said, “One of our allies will get their message and help them out. Then they’ll come here and find our beautiful perfectly preserved corpses.”

Keith nodded, Lance’s morbid words oddly comforting. “Um…Lance?” Keith asked, “Can I ask you something?”

“You just did,” Lance said. Keith flinched, but Lance said, “Go on.”

“I’ve been…kinda avoiding the elephant on the starship ever since we got stuck out here,” he said, “but that’s because I’m terrible with emotions. I was kinda expecting you to push for my answer.”

“Answer?” Lance said, “For what?”

“The question you asked me on the ship.”

Lance stiffened under Keith’s arms. “I don’t want to know.”

“But,” Keith said, “earlier you said,”

“I know what I said,” Lance said, “But that was when I was pretty sure I’d wake up tomorrow. Now…now you’re either going to say ‘no’ and reject me literally moments before my death, or you’ll tell me yes and I’ll be convinced you’re lying to make me feel better before I die.”

Keith felt a tear build up in the corner of his eye, “What if I need to answer?”

“Keith—“

“No,” Keith cuts him off, “No, I’ve been running my whole life, running from anything and everything that really mattered to me. I won’t do it in death.” Lance was silent, “The truth, the horrible ugly truth is that…I didn’t tell you…I pushed you away because…” He swallowed, “Lance I more than like you. I have more than a crush on you. I’m pretty sure I have since you were overly friendly with me at the Garrison. The truth is…the truth is I love you.” Keith managed the tiniest of smiles, “Lance McClain, I love you.”

Lance was struck silent, staring wildly at Keith’s violet eyes.

“Well?” Keith said, after the silence stretched on too long, “Aren’t you going to say something?”

Lance swallowed this time. “Your timing is shit.”

Keith didn’t know how to react to that. He leaned his helmet against Lance’s and Lance pulled him close. Slowly, Keith closed his eyes. 

He didn’t even notice the ship passing overhead until static came over his comm.

“………personnel……..red………….Voltron?....ship…….do you copy?”

Keith’s eyes bulged open. “Lance?” He said, “Lance do you hear that?” 

Lance didn’t respond, remaining motionless in his arms. 

The message called out again, “ Floating personnel, can you identify yourself as the red and blue paladins of Voltron? This is the Betajoran ship Voyant. Floating personnel, do you copy?”

“Yes,” Keith said, crying, “Yes, we copy, and we are, Lance and Keith, red and blue paladins.”

“We’re sending out a rescue ship to bring you aboard so we can transport you back to Lion Castle. Hold on.”

He held onto Lance for dear life. 

 

 

Keith and Lance’s medical pods fell open at the same time, Lance into Hunk’s arms, Keith into Shiro’s. 

“What happened?” Keith asked. He looked down to see himself in the ridiculous white medical suit. 

“You suffered minor asphyxiation in the vacuum of space,” Allura answered, “Come now, we’ll get you food.”

Keith and Lance ate goo beside one another as the others explained how the Betajorans, Arusians, and Balmerans rushed to their rescue, as Voltron had rushed to each of theirs. They did a shakedown of the Caalama, got their crystal back, and Allura worked her diplomatic magic to repair their relationship, which boiled down to the Caalama getting benefits like protection and access to ethically grown Balmera crystals, as long as they didn’t scavenge and mug Voltron-allied ships, and agreed to trade the items they found to the alliance. 

Honestly, Keith didn’t pay much attention to anything that wasn’t Lance beside him. 

Finally, they were released to go back to their rooms where they were supposed to rest, but Lance thankfully grabbed Keith’s arm and pulled him aside. “Keith,” He said, “Listen, I don’t want things to be awkward, we both said a lot of stuff, but I can accept you know, you thought you were dying so I won’t hold you to—“

“No,” Keith said, “No, I meant what I said.”

Lance blinked in surprise, “You did?”

Keith nodded, “But, I know I treated you rather awfully, kinda dragging you along and…and heck, a crush is different from love so I don’t expect you to—“

“Keith?” Lance said.

“Yeah?”

“Shut up,” 

With that, Lance grabbed Keith’s face and pulled him in, pressing his lips against Keith’s like it was the last thing he’d ever do.

Keith froze in surprise, but once it registered that yes, this was really happening he was quick to throw his hands around Lance’s shoulders, kissing him back in the middle of the empty hallway. 

When they did finally separate, Lance rested his forehead on top of Keith’s looking deep into Keith’s eyes, “I love you too,” He said.

Keith smiled at him. He was unsure if this was a dream, or maybe he really did die out there in the vacuum of space, but as long as Lance kept looking at him and kissing him like that, he didn’t mind either way.

**Author's Note:**

> Keith's bad dreams were dreams about Lance if that wasn't clear. 
> 
> Hopefully you all now can forgive me for the ending of 'Blood Fever'
> 
> As always, if you have a star trek ep you'd like me to parody let me know
> 
> And also, please let me know what you think! My tumblr is dork-empress


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